


Promise Me

by Clockwork



Category: Heroes (TV)
Genre: Family, M/M, Old Age, Polyamory, Post canon, not everyone lives forever
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-15
Updated: 2018-11-15
Packaged: 2019-08-24 05:51:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16634162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clockwork/pseuds/Clockwork
Summary: Eventually every journey ends, no matter how amazing that journey is.





	Promise Me

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Jemisard](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jemisard/gifts).



They never thought they would get this far, even after they had stopped fighting and admitting their desires. They never thought they would live to be old men, living in a flat in London, loved by their neighbors and celebrated by their friends when they had first their tenth anniversary, then their twentieth and then their fortieth with a huge party hosted not only by their new friends and Peter, but by Molly as well. 

Molly who lived in France now with her girlfriend and their two little girls. Molly who would visit them often, finally putting her foot down sometime around her eighteenth birthday that she couldn’t keep seeing Mohinder and not seeing Gabriel as well. 

That first meeting had been tense - on Mohinder’s part - and nerve wracking on Gabe’s, but in the end they had found mutual ground in books and movies and with enough years she was able to truly see Gabe and not think about her parents. Whoever Sylar had been, he was dead and gone and his crimes had gone with them. At least for their family. 

A family that included Parkman until his death a year before his retirement when he’d been shot by a drug dealer pulled over for a busted taillight. Peter Petrelli who had long outlived his mother and brother, and who had distanced himself from the politics of his nephews until he’d moved to Canada and settled down there and stayed alone despite Mohinder and Gabe’s best attempts. Micah visited often, though DL and Niki refused to even come into the country where Gabe was, and he brought with him Ando once who had never recovered from losing Hiro yet again. It was a family of those affected by the eclipse and changed by Sylar, and yet they could sit in the living room that was decorated in bright colors, with a drafting table littered with watch parts in the corner, and smile and laugh and share in ways in ways they couldn’t with others. Those that hadn’t been through it couldn’t understand. Not like they do.

They had celebrated their fortieth anniversary in Paris with Molly and her family, and then Peter joining them as well for a week. They had taken the baby girls to the top of the Eiffel Tower, and had a beautiful meal by candlelight under a full moon, and then explored all of the culinary treats that were second nature to Mohinder and Peter and that they were still educating Gabriel on after all this time. 

Yet even then, somehow, Gabriel had known then it was the last milestone anniversary they would have. When he looked back it wasn’t because Mohinder’s skin seemed less rich, or that his eyes had lost some of their sheen, but it was more the things that Mohinder wasn’t saying than how he looked. 

He was often quiet, just watching Gabriel with such sadness in his eyes. When Gabe called him on it, he laughed and waved a hand and dismissed it all and changed the subject. Gabriel knew long before Mohinder could no longer hide it from him. By then the doctors had tried all they could in what Mohinder had dismissed as routine appointments. Not that the doctors had any clue what they were facing, speaking of mutated cells, and oddities in his blood. They’d known then. They had heard it when they’d gotten samples from Parkman, and the same thing had been in both Angela and Nathan’s blood. Just no one had thought it would show in Mohinder’s who had never presented as the others had, only lived around them for most of his life.

All of the best parts of his life, he said often. Whispering it to Gabriel in that moment. Murmuring the words as he kissed the back of Gabriel’s hand, then the palm. Then the tips of his first two fingers. Fingers that had caused so much damage and destruction and then had helped to make the world better with all of the skills that he had.

“You are the only reason I have a life,” he whispered back, his voice cracking with tears that he fought to not let fall. “Mohinder…”

“Gabe, no. Don’t. I knew the choices I made. I wanted to be with you and not in a hospital. I needed to be here, in our home. The others will be here soon, and you can let them know, and they’ll help you deal with things.”

“But how…”

Mohinder chuckled, the sound wet and heavy as he squeezed Gabriel’s hand. “Molly will know. She traces us all subconsciously these days. She’ll know.”

She would know when he vanished, and she would know why.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do.” Bowing his head, pressing his brow to Mohinder’s hand. Again he hurt that soft, painful chuckle.

“Of course you do. You’re going to pack up this house, and you’re going to take it all and go to Canada.”

His head snapped up, dark eyes narrowed. To anyone else and that look may have been frightening, even with the gray at his temple and the lines that edged his face. Even then Mohinder only smiled fondly at him, putting a finger to Gabe’s lips before he could argue. 

“We should have done it years ago. Or brought him here. Now that he won’t worry about what Claire and the nephews knowing about it, I want you to go. I don’t want either of you to be alone.”

A few decades earlier and Gabe would have made a joke about Mohinder wanting a babysitter for him, that he didn’t trust him to be alone. Now though, he knew it was so much more than that. It was about the love the three of them had shared, the parts of their life. Peter may have lived in Canada, but he had spent as many nights of the year in their flat as he had in his own. 

“Then.. he can come here.”

“Gabriel, no. I will not have you wallowing,” he warned, the roughness of that warning causing a cough that shook his entire frail frame. “Please. Promise me… Promise you’ll go to Canada.”

The only sound in the room for a long time was the rattling of Mohinder’s breathing. 

“Gabriel?”

He sighed, knowing he had no choice as he bowed his head once more. “I promise. I promise I’ll go to Canada and make sure Peter doesn’t do anything stupid.”

That earned him a chuckle. “I’m not sure you can promise that. He is prone to it.”

Gabriel smiled, a small, tight smile that didn’t last for long. “Mohinder, I can’t do this.”

“Yes. Yes you can, and you will. We have not worked this hard, Gabriel, for you to give up now.”

“I’m not giving up. I just ca…”

“You can,” he said, tones firm and his express as determined and frustrated as it had been since the day he’d learned the truth, the day Gabriel had come to him asking for help without ever using the words. “You can because you are Gabriel Suresh and you are stronger than you have ever been, and you have never been a quitter. Now, listen to me.”

He told Gabriel where all of his important papers were, including all of his research from the very beginning until now. He told him what to do with those papers, and how he and Peter were going to reveal the truth with all that Mohinder had collected. 

Gabe didn’t have to ask why now. He knew. Because there was little that they could do to Gabriel and Peter. Between their abilities they could take on anyone, and had many times. No one knew the others were close with Mohinder and Gabriel and Peter so once Mohinder was gone, there was no one they could hurt because those they could target would and could destroy them. 

“One more thing, Gabriel. I want no arguments on this.” It was a stern voice despite how breathy it was, the cough that made him pause, and Gabriel knew… He knew things were close and he held tight to Mohinder’s hand then. “You will stay with Peter.”

“Mohinder…” He said it softly, pained, knowing what he was asking and not sure he was willing to agree.

“No. No. I will not have you following me and leaving him alone. I will already be gone, Gabe. He needs you.”

Tears filled his eyes but Gabriel nodded. An eternity without Mohinder. He wasn’t sure how he could do it, but for Mohinder, he would.

“I promise. I’ll take care of things and I won’t leave him.” 

Mohinder smiled then, that perfect, wide, beautiful smile. 

“Good. And Gabriel?”

“Yes?”

“I’m sorry I made you wait until you were grey,” he said, amusing himself with that pun.

Even if it was his last, Gabriel realizing once when he stopped laughing that it was the last time Mohinder would make a dumb joke again.


End file.
